Artist rendering of the Cactus Club Cafe location just approved for English Bay Beach. It’s scheduled to open in June 2011.

Credit: supplied

ON THE PLATE: Cactus on the beach

I surprised myself when I reacted to the recent news that Cactus Club Cafe had been given the green light by the Vancouver Park Board to build a new restaurant on English Bay, near the intersection of Davie and Denman, where a generic concession has traditionally stood. Others I know in the city foodsphere are appalled at the decision, either decrying the corporate invasion of public land or drawing an immediate comparison to the 2005 gastronomic disappointment that was Watermark restaurant on Kits Beach. There goes the neighbourhood, seemed to be the general sentiment. I, on the other hand, despite my previous opposition to Cactus Club in general, couldn’t disagree more.

Watermark, though an architectural stunner with a gabillion dollar view, is, in my opinion, an establishment that was put in place solely to make money on the strength of its prized location. Not enough due diligence was paid to the measure of its food and drink. Having an oceanfront address in Vancouver is pretty much a license to rake it in, so while Watermark’s weaknesses didn’t really come as a big surprise, the ambivalence of the Park Board’s decision did. It had, by virtue of the beauty and importance of the site, an unwritten responsibility to deliver a worthy restaurant. Watermark wasn’t it, but Cactus Club Cafe is an altogether different story.

Since early 2008, when famed Vancouver chef Rob Feenie came on board to act as its “Food Concept Architect” (after leaving the highly acclaimed Lumière and Feenie’s restaurants he co-founded), Cactus Club has approached its kitchens and customers with a new-found seriousness. “Iron Chef” Feenie introduced 15 of his own dishes to the menu after having meticulously tested them (and assured their consistency) across all of the chain’s 20 locations in B.C. and Alberta. I’ve eaten almost all of them at the stunning, $6.5-million flagship location in downtown’s Bentall 5 office tower (588 Burrard, 604-682-0933, CactusClubCafe.com), to which I returned last week to refresh my memory, and didn’t find a dud in the lot.

Feenie’s signature ravioli, pregnant with satiny butternut squash, is a blessing that many will remember from his days at Lumière, whether topped with prawns in a gorgeously arranged trio ($12.50) or sauced with a truffle beurre blanc and dusted with amaretti, pine nuts, and just the right amount of crisped-up sage ($17.50). His hunter-style chicken ($22.50) is huge and flawlessly cooked, its sharp demiglace earthily redolent of mushrooms, its outsize plate crowded with green beans and fingerling potatoes. His sablefish ($26) is perfect, soaked in saké and soy, paired with asparagus and served in a Japanese dashi broth.

Even when he takes on the basic, Feenie swings for the fences. His short-rib au jus sandwich on toasted sourdough turned me into a gobbling fiend, its meat loose and wet, layered with melted Emmenthal and sweetly caramelized onions. It came with the best yam fries I’d had in years, and for a price ($16) as approachable as the others I’ve listed above. With Feenie on board, value at Cactus Club isn’t just an “appearance thereof” anymore.

Though I’d never sung the Cactus Club’s praises before (I ripped it apart in a review a few years ago), in recent times I’ve come to see the company — which generates annual sales of over $100 million — as leaps and bounds better than Earls, Milestones, or any of its other “casual fine dining” competitors. This has much to do with the food having improved immeasurably, but the chain has moved forward in other areas as well, most notably on the environmental front. Cactus Club is a founding member of both the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise program, which promotes the procurement of sustainable seafood, and the Green Table Network, which guides restaurants in lowering the impact they have on the planet. (To that end, the new building that will house the English Bay location will be LEED Gold certified).

But, most importantly, Cactus Club founder and president Richard Jaffray is keenly aware of the responsibilities that come with such an emblematic address. “Whenever we have the opportunity to do a flagship location, it raises the bar for all the rest,” he told me. “Nothing would be worse for me to have this iconic spot and not have it be a positive experience. We’re held to a high account at all of our locations, but I think the visibility of this one ups that quite a bit.” 

It’s that attitude, plus the quality and consistency of Feenie’s food, that has stoked my enthusiasm for the Park Board’s decision. To passionately support small, independent restaurants is a noble thing (something I’ve tried to do for five years in these pages), but it should be remembered that Cactus Club, though a relative corporate behemoth, is first and foremost a local company. Jaffray and Feenie are Vancouverites to the bone, and through their efforts, the independent dining scene is being pushed to compete — in my books, never a bad thing. One can’t fault another for success, especially when it becomes clear how well deserved that success is.

Cactus Club Cafe’s English Bay location starts construction in September 2010, and will open in June 2011.